Giant squid photo by NASA 1999

It was once thought to be impossible, but the giant squid video released January 7, 2012 by the Discovery Channel and Japan’s National Science Museum showed that humans could actually capture film of the elusive creature in its natural habitat. In December, Discovery made the announcement that Japanese scientists had captured footage of the creature thought to have inspired the kraken of Greek Mythology, popularized in recent films such as Clash of the Titans.

“Since we’re inclined to take a ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ view of the world over here, it’s safe to say that we were all dubious of the claim, especially when past experience has shown that such overhyped discoveries are often run-of-the-mill colossal squid that don’t even merit a second glance,” wrote Steven Romano in his January 7, 2012 Geekosystem post “Giant Squid footage is actually of a giant squid, and its apparently silver.” The contributor was thrilled, however, that his cynicism was misplaced. The release of an image and a few seconds of film from the raw footage, taken by Tsunemi Kubodera and his team, proved without a doubt that humans had ventured into the giant squid’s domain and captured proof of their visit.

Years in the making

The film captured by Kubodera was the work of more than the 400 hours he and his team spent in their research sub. Dr. Clyde Roper, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the giant squid, has been looking for a living specimen in its natural habitat for years. In 1999, Roper wrapped up an expedition into New Zealand’s Kaikoura Canyon with no sightings, though the team was able to study corpses of the creature caught in fishing nets. The Smithsonian zoologist, also funded in part by the Discovery Channel, noted how inaccessible the creature’s habitat is.

In 2004, Japanese scientists were able to capture the first photographs of the giant squid in its habitat. The same team caught a live squid and hauled it to the surface, where they filmed it, in 2006.

“For hundreds of years, stories and legends and myths have been perpetuated about these huge animals, largely because we have no biological or behavioral information about them,” Roper said in an April 18, 1999 interview, “Smithsonian in search of a giant squid,” with Karen Goldberg Goff of the Washington Times. “Giant squids are portrayed in movies and books as being fearsome beasts that attack ships and eat people. It has always been my objective to try and learn the truth about giant squid, to learn the truth about where they live and how they live and what their behavior is so I can dispel these myths. I have always believed it is much more interesting to know about the real animals than to make up stories, especially horror stories.”

Architeuthis facts

The reasons giant squid, which have the scientific name architeuthis, are so hard to study is due in part to the depth of their home environments. Some fast facts about giant squid include:

• The giant squid lives between 660 feet and 3,300 feet below sea level.
• It can grow as long as 59 feet and weigh up to a ton.
• Its eyes run about 10 inches in diameter, or about the size of a human head.
• The scientific name comes from the Greek for “ruling squid.”
• After death, the body of a giant squid decomposes rapidly, making it difficult for scientists to study the anatomy.
• The beaks of giant squid have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales.

Kubodera’s team

Traveling via research submarine, Kubodera’s team spotted the squid more than a half mile below the surface of the ocean, 620 miles south of Tokyo. Knowing that the giant squid would avoid bright lights and a loud vehicle, the team avoided those usual flaws of research vessels trying to capture footage of the squid. The specimen they discovered was small – only about three meters long – but it was missing its two longest tentacles; with them, it might have been closer to eight meters, or over 26 feet in length.

In his January 8, 2013 article “All hail the kraken: Scientists capture live footage of giant squid” Nolan Feeney of Time magazine quoted the reaction of biologist Edie Widder, a member of Kubodera’s 2012 expedition. “It looked carved out of metal. And it would change from being silver to gold. It was just breathtaking.”

The full footage will be released on January 27, 2012, on the Discovery Channel’s Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real. For more information on ocean life, visit Questia’s topic page on marine biology.

From the Ivory-billed Woodpecker to the Javan Rhinoceros to the Greater Bamboo Lemur, no less than one in ten species could face extinction by the year 2100, according to research by the University of Exeter. How does humanity consider what to save? When do we let go? And is there a fine line drawn somewhere in the sand?  To assist students in their research of today’s environmental challenges, we’ve granted access to reference works on some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

To provide context, Questia is granting access to reference works on five books that explore in detail the complexity of these monumental environmental problems for free for the entire month!

Climate change

Authors Eric A. Posner and David Weisbach tackle the subject of climate change by arguing for pragmatic constraints constituting a moral vision whereby states cooperatively advance the well-being of their populations, and hence the global population, by agreeing to limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Allocation of burdens will vary given the state of those countries contributing the most to global warming but ethical considerations will play an important role in helping to generate a surplus, in the form of credits or monetary payments among countries. [Posner, Eric A., and David Weisbach. Climate Change Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2010.Questia. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.]

Sustainable development

A vast number of people living in developing countries are faced with the continued dilemma of economic prosperity at the expense of environmental degradation.  Farmland, forests, wetlands, and coastal areas are under constant threat by industrial development while at the same time form the basis of livelihood for many of its inhabitants. Misguided policies can lead to short term gain but long term harm to the environment and for future generations. Author David Glover’s book explores economic questions on the value of environmental benefits versus the costs of safeguarding them and can we assess the impacts of environmental action (or inaction) on the poor? [Glover, David. Valuing the Environment: Economics for a Sustainable Future. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2010. Questia. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.]

Environmental ethics

Authors Christine E. Gudorf and James E. Huchingson document recent case studies on the topic of environmental ethics, including water privatization and governmental efforts at mitigating global climate change.  Other case studies revolve around the experience that teachers of environmental ethics encounter in the classroom, including such questions as: “Why should we care?” “Why should I put the interests of animals or habitats or future human beings ahead of my personal interests?” Or “What are the values that would oblige us to conserve the natural environment?” These are central questions faced by both students and those who work in the fields of economics and politics. [Gudorf, Christine E., and James E. Huchingson. Boundaries: A Casebook in Environmental Ethics. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2010. Questia. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.]

Environmental policy

Author Michael R. Greenberg pores over the experience of what is involved in the creation of environmental policy and practice. Case studies are examined leading readers to a better understanding of how certain factors have driven key environmental health decisions in the United States. Greenberg’s goal is for the reader to recognize that adopting a specific framework and learning key theories and tools will help place you in a better position to respond to new policy issues that emerge. [Greenberg, Michael R. Environmental Policy Analysis and Practice. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2007. Questia. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.]

Natural resource management

Author Toddi A. Steelman provides insight into the conditions that impede or facilitate successful innovations. For Steelman, given that public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic organizations invest millions of dollars in promoting innovative programs, it is imperative that we understand the conditions under which these innovations are likely to fulfill their promise.  If we can understand these conditions, then we can better target funding, human resources, and political will to support innovations over the long term. [Steelman, Toddi A. Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Governance. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2010. Questia. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.]

Visit Questia’s topic page on environmental issues for more information. If not already a member, you can try Questia free for one day and conduct research into environmental issues in our books and journals.

Charles Babbage, inventor of first computer

Happy birthday to the late Steve Jobs! As a culture, we often take technology for granted and forget the painstaking years that inventors spend creating the machines we use every day. For example, you have Charles Babbage to thank, among others, for your ability to view this text on your computer. In honor of the late Steve Jobs’ birthday on February 24^th, Questia, the premier online research tool for students has compiled a list of the top 10 inventors being researched in the Questia library.

To celebrate these inventors’ contributions to our society and Steve Jobs’ legacy, we’ve selected reference works from our library of 77,000 academic books and 4 million journal articles and are opening them up for free for a month. In addition to the 10 listed below, you might want to take a look at our full list of computer and Internet research.

1. Thomas Edison – Born in 1847 in Ohio, Thomas Edison is celebrated for inventing both the electric light and the phonograph—two inventions that changed the world. In his forties, Edison began development of the motion picture devices, the kinetograph and kinetoscope, and formed the company General Electric. [Adair, Gene. Thomas Alva Edison: Inventing the Electric Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Questia. Web.]
2. Alexander Graham Bell – Alexander Graham Bell changed the world by inventing the telephone in 1876 when he was 29 years old. Bell’s invention allowed people to directly communicate with others outside their immediate physical presence for the first time in history. [Haven, Kendall. 100 Greatest Science Inventions of All Time. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Questia. Web.]
3. Johann Gutenberg – Born in the late 1300s, Johann Gutenberg is known as the father of printing. His familiarity with blacksmith and goldsmith crafts impacted the design and success of his invention—mechanical movable type printing—which began the printing revolution. [Scholderer, Victor. Johann Gutenberg: The Inventor of Printing. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1963. Questia. Web.]
4. Karl Benz – Born in 1844, Karl Benz was the founder of Mercedes-Benz and is widely regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile. His German patent, “D.R. Patent 37,435,” was granted on January 29, 1886—a date generally considered as the birthday of the first automobile. [Smil, Vaclav. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Questia. Web.]
5. Orville and Wilbur Wright – The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were credited on December 17, 1903 with the first successful airplane flight with a “heavier-than-air” machine powered by a gasoline motor. [Bates, Ralph S. Scientific Societies in the United States. New York: The Technology Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1945. Questia. Web.]
6. Charles Babbage – Born in London, England on December 26, 1791, Charles Babbage is praised as the inventor of the first computer. He is also credited with designing the first speedometer, devising the first-class mail system and calculating the first reliable mortality tables for the insurance industry. [Franceschetti, Donald R., ed. Biographical Encyclopedia of Mathematicians. Vol. 1. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1999. Questia. Web.]
7. Alessandro Volta –Italian physicist Alessandro Volta was born on February 18, 1745 in Como, Italy. He discovered a source of continuous electric current from a pile of dissimilar metals: a column of zinc and silver discs separated by paper that has been moistened with brine to provide a simple source of continuous current. The unit of electrical pressure, the volt, is named after Volta. [Day, Lance, and Ian McNeil, eds. Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. London: Routledge, 1998. Questia. Web.]
8. Tim Berners-Lee – While working at the European Particle Physics Laboratory at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, Oxford graduate Tim Berners-Lee was credited with creating the World Wide Web. His proposal, HyperText and CERN, was written in 1989, and his files were first made available to the public on August 6, 1991. [Little, Jeffrey B., and Lucien Rhodes. Understanding Wall Street. 4th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Questia. Web.]
9. James Watt – James Watt is renowned for perfecting the steam engine and lends his name to the unit of power, the watt. Although he did not directly invent it, he is commonly known to have started the development of the modern steam engine. [Pupin, Michael. From Immigrant to Inventor. New York: Scribner's sons, 1923. Questia. Web.]
10. Philo Farnsworth – Philo Farnsworth invented the basic components in the electronic television, successfully transmitting television images electronically in 1927 at the age of 21. He formed Television, Inc. in 1929, and publicly displayed his invention for the first time at the Franklin Institute in 1934. [Haven, Kendall, and Donna Clark. 100 Most Popular Scientists for Young Adults: Biographical Sketches and Professional Paths. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1999. Questia. Web.]